Shade

Shadows of the Pattern & the Realm of Amber

'Shade' is a term that has recently begun being used in Amber that has had considerable currency amongst sorcerers for centuries. It refers to shadows of the Pattern of Amber that are imperfect but are potent within their realms of origin. It is said that an Amberite can walk to a shadow where each of them is King of Amber or none of them are, or where other things have occurred. In theory there exist uncountable copies of the Pattern of Amber in these lesser realms.

Sometimes the denizens of these worlds find their way to realms the primal Amberites inhabit in Shadow. The theory is that each pattern in Shade contains a percentage of true pattern segments, reflecting the proximity to the reality of Amber. Practitioners of Sorcery from Shade kingdoms can become very powerful. Many can go toe to toe with those from the real Amber. The difference between Fiona of Amber and a Shade Fiona may be very small in practical terms and may matter even less if the Shade Fiona take a disliking to someone.

For what ought to be obvious reasons Amber has had nearly no communication with these worlds. Being the archetypal creatures they, both the primal and the shade versions, are not likely to get along. Nor are they likely to believe that intruders are higher order Amberites. The toast blesses the company to 'Live in Amber forever." So these dwellers do think. Unless specific actions have occurred to change teir perspective, each of the Shade Amber's dwellers see themselves as the pinical of reality and the only true Amberites. They take considerable, even violent actions to convince them otherwise.

Acts and Rumors Concerning Shade Dwellers

Amongst the rumors concerning Shade Dwellers are the following known facts and probable rumors.

It is known that Caine slew one of his Shades during the Patternfall War, using the shade body to convince his siblings that he had been slain. It is rumored that the Shade Caine was actually slain by his son, Lark, whose existence was unknown till recently, to all but Caine.

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It is known that Fiona has dueled to the death with at least two Shade Fionas. Both incidents occurred at the Imperial University at Fantalin, Thalusia. She is rumored to have fought two others and befriended at least one. Since there is always a Fiona in residence at Fantalin it is believed the real Fiona and this Shade Fiona have an arrangement.

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Bleys was recently seen in Diego engaged in what was called 'riotous revelry' with two twins of his. When confronted they all denied knowing anyone named Bleys, claiming they were all named "Buddy Fish the Wonder Dog," and were a hive creature from Cirrus the Dog Star All three were arrested after an attempt to resist arrest resulted considerable damage.

Subsequently Doria, Truman and Bill Roth were sent to bail out the real Bleys. The Amber Exchequer reimbursed the injured parties. They discovered that it was impossible to determine which was the real Bleys. So they bailed all of them out. The Bleys' then pyshe dominated Truman & Doria, and fled with the captive Bill Roth. Tracking them as they fled through shadow they came upon a gyspsy caravan of immense size. There they found the Bleys' living like kings of the Gypsies, singing, dancing & druming. They convinced the Bleys' to return to Amber, which they did, bringing their caravan in tow. Now 5000 gypsies and their wagons inhabit Tent Town outside Amber.

In the aftermath of this incident Jullian determined which two of the Bleys' were shade by touching them with his chip of the Unicorn Horn. Dworkin confirmed this and further pointed out that the two Bleys' were from a shade with 99% concurrence, making them nearly as powerful as Bleys himself.

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It is rumored that at least 9 of Benedict's chief lieutenants in the Marshallate of Amber are Shades of himself he has made common cause with. Being amongst the most practical of Amberites he is believed to have gone to these realms, proved his own seniority, which his shades accepted in due corse, and then enlisted them. At least one Shade Benedict is King of Amber in his Shade.

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Walking Shade Patterns

As mentioned above Shade Patterns are the power centers of Shadows of Amber. As a shadow it is stocked with imperfect shadows of the people of the shadow realms. The people live as if in Amber. The denizens of these realms can walk their shadow pattern and any shadow pattern of a lesser degree of percentile concurrence.

An Amberite from a realm with a pattern with 47% concurrence can walk any pattern with 47% or less concurrence. They will fail walking a 48% pattern or greater. Amberites from the true realm can walk any shade pattern. Doing so gains them no benefit. Walking the pattern for a shade dweller allows them to travel in shadow as any Amberite except they can not reach the upper echelon shadows.

The only reason an Amberite might walk a lesser Shade Pattern is to impersonate the Amberite that mimics them in that realm.

Shade Patterns can be masked to mimic a pattern of a greater value within 10% of it's own. This means that an amberite with basic imprint could not tell the difference between the real imprint and a shade imprint with a 90% concurrence factor. Advance pattern can not distinguish a masked patern with a 97% concurrence factor.

Shade in Sorcery

Practitioners of Sorcery treat Shade Sorcerers nearly as equals. They treat Broken Pattern Sorcerers as step-brothers. The similarity in the three forms of pattern-based sorcery is extraordinary. In many ways the only difference is the final factor involving what powers the spells. All three can easily interchange spells. A sorcerer of a Broken Pattern who assays the full pattern can immediately use sorcery at the pattern level, although they must restructure their magic to accept the new power levels and remove the flaw from their sorcery. Sorcerers of Shade Realms generally have no chance to rise to the next level.

Shade Sorcerers and Pattern Sorcerers frequently collaborate on research due to the similarity of form. The differences in the two sometimes leading to further advances. There is sometimes a small difference in phraseology and power levels but the vast amount of detail is the same. The problem with Broken Pattern Sorcerers is that they incorporate the flaw of the pattern into their sorcery. This can be dangerous to the Broken Pattern sorcerers.

Shade sorcerers can draw on their pattern-power to the full extent of the degree of concurrence with the true pattern their shade contains. This means that a shade sorcerer of a 50% shade, having identical psyche, will cast magic at 1/2 the power of a true sorcerer. A shade sorcerer from the 80%, 90%, and above shades can be very formidable.